K-Beauty Market Briefing — 2026-07-31

Original English analysis for global buyers. Source articles are linked; summaries are newly written, not excerpted.

demand

Amorepacific's quarter shows the China problem is now officially solved by geography

Amorepacific Group posted Q2 revenue of KRW 1.25 trillion, up 14.6%, with operating profit jumping 53.3% as overseas sales rose 28% and overseas operating profit nearly doubled. North America, Europe and Japan more than offset continued softness in mainland China, with COSRX taking leading Amazon positions in Germany and the UK and Japan setting record sales.

Buyer takeaway: European buyers dealing with Amorepacific brands should expect deeper local investment and steadier supply, but also firmer pricing discipline, since Europe is now a profit engine rather than an experiment for the group.

Source: Newspim (Korean)

demand

European retail is building K-beauty its own real estate

John Lewis has opened a dedicated K-beauty shop-in-shop with distributor Skin Cupid carrying 20 brands including Beauty of Joseon, Medicube and Anua, after Korean skincare searches on its platform surged roughly 800%. Douglas ran an exclusive Beauty of Joseon pop-up in Düsseldorf, and Beauty of Joseon has expanded from 120 to about 1,300 Boots doors, signalling a shift from shelf placement to joint retail programming.

Buyer takeaway: Mid-size European retailers should move from testing individual Korean SKUs to negotiating curated K-beauty zones, because dedicated-space economics — exclusives, consultation, cross-brand baskets — are what the top chains are now competing on.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily (Korean)

regulation

America's new sunscreen ingredient gets a sale date: August 9

Products using bemotrizinol, the first new UV filter approved by the US FDA in 27 years, become legally sellable in the US from 9 August 2026. Korean sun care makers, who have long formulated with the ingredient for non-US markets under the Tinosorb S name, are positioned to move faster than US incumbents that have never worked with it.

Buyer takeaway: US-facing buyers should start supplier conversations about bemotrizinol formulations now rather than waiting for launches, because early production slots for the first compliant SKUs will be claimed within one or two quarters.

Source: Newspim (Korean)

About AnD KBeauty

This briefing is researched and written by AnD KBeauty, a Seoul-based K-beauty B2B wholesale supplier for small and mid-size retailers in the US, EU/UK, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. We publish open MOQs, lead times and compliance guides with no login wall, and consolidate mixed-brand orders from 30-100 units per SKU into one shipment from Korea.

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